


Too Late

by elitejace452



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Hurt Peter Parker, Hypothermia, Peter Parker Whump, Sad Ending, The Author Regrets Nothing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:42:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25237912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elitejace452/pseuds/elitejace452
Summary: Natasha and Peter go out for a cup of coffee while Peter’s at the Compound for the weekend.  They are targeted by someone in Stark’s past.  Only one of them makes it home.WARNING: Major Character Death
Relationships: Peter Parker & Natasha Romanov, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 94





	Too Late

**Author's Note:**

> I refuse to believe that Peter and Natasha would have been anything but the best of friends. I love any story that has the spider duo together, so feel free to drop any story suggestions below. Not exactly sure on timeline placement for this but Civil War didn’t happen because I hated watching them fight each other, and the Avengers are still living in the Compound. 
> 
> I took my sadness out on the characters, so fair warning it is a death fic and really angsty. I wrote this in about 2 hours, just hammering out some of my feelings on some of my favorite characters of course. Let me know what you think! My other incomplete stories should be updated within the next week. 

Natasha had appreciated a good cup of coffee since she was ten years old. She was glad that Tony’s exuberant upbringing had given him the same appreciation, so the Compound was never lacking on the best coffee, but sometimes, she loved to get out and visit her favorite coffee shops. The week had dragged on, but it was finally Friday and Peter had arrived a few hours ago. Tony had immediately whisked him down to work on a design with him, but she planned to steal him away for an hour to try this place with her. His bubbly personality lit up the entire Compound in a way that shouldn’t be possible. His energy was contagious. The older Avengers found themselves smiling more when Peter was here. The first time Natasha and Peter had been formally introduced; Peter’s voice had jumped three octaves as he called her ma’am. She had leveled him with a glare that made normal people wilt, while Peter gave her a sheepish grin, and said to never call her ma’am again. He nodded and said that the spiders have to stick together, so they had. They trained together and Natasha never seemed to mind lending an ear to his endless babbling. When Tony was away, Natasha kept him under her wing and her affection for him had only grown more and more. 

“Peter, do you want to go to the city with me?” Natasha asked as she stuck her head into the lab, her auburn waves falling around her shoulder. Tony gave her a half-serious glare when Peter’s head snapped up immediately and he nodded energetically. “We won’t be gone long, maybe an hour and a half at the most?” She told Tony who rolled his eyes before clapping Peter on the back as they stood up. Peter gave him his infamous puppy dog eyes before Tony relented, shooing him in Natasha’s direction. 

“If you are gone too long, I’m going to finish this suit without you and make it purple and black and give it to Barton.” Tony teased as he gestured to the pieces of suit on the table in front of them. The schematics were scattered all across, and to Natasha, it looked like a heap of junk, but she knew the boys in front of her would turn it into something incredible. 

“You wouldn’t dare, Mr. Stark!” Peter laughed, faking a theatrical gasp, as he walked over to Natasha. She slung an arm around him, guiding him back away as she turned and smirked at Tony. He rolled his eyes again, shaking his head, as he reached his StarkPad. He would have thought it was a cold day in Hell when Peter and Natasha had struck up their friendship but now, it seemed natural. A weird pit settled in his stomach as the elevator doors closed behind the two of them. Tony shook it off as he opened his email and started responding to the dozens of emails that had piled up. 

//////\\\\\\\\\\\

“Are you sure it’s just the two of them?” The man’s voice was so low, it was just a growl. There was absolutely no room for any mistakes. This day had been in the planning for almost a year, and he was not going to let it fail now that they were so close to the finish line. The group knew that Stark had an extremely special spot for the child. They weren’t sure why he was so special, but that didn’t matter. Capturing and killing him would bring Stark to his knees, forever. The death of an innocent child would destroy him. Black Widow dying with the boy would be the final nail in the coffin. 

“Positive. Just the boy and Black Widow.” A second voice answered immediately. They were prepared to handle the Avenger with him. They had come up with every scenario they needed. His contact inside the Compound was completely reliable. He knew that they would be heading into the city, which would give them miles of deserted highway to finish their plan. 

“Good. Everyone in position.” The first voice was back, giving his final command. Neither of them would be returning to the Compound. Stark deserved every second of pain he would feel from this. “No mistakes.” 

//////\\\\\\\\\\\

Peter chatted away as Natasha nodded her head, listening to Peter talk about his chemistry lab and the almost fiasco that Flash had caused with mixing chemicals haphazardly. She was not a fan of the bully, but Peter had made her promise to leave him alone. The entirety of the Avengers wanted to have a little discussion with Flash, but Peter had insisted every time someone mentioned intervening. Peter stopped mid-sentence, sitting up straight in the passenger seat of the Corvette. Natasha glanced at him with confusion in her eyes. 

“What’s wrong?” She asked, concerned, as Peter’s eyes darted around. She honed in on his arm, noticing the hair standing straight up. “What is it?” She knew that meant danger, but even with her sharp eyes, she didn’t see a threat on the road. There was no one in front of them and no one had followed them out of the Compound. 

“I-I don’t know!” Peter sounded nervous. His spidey-sense was on high alert all of a sudden, but there was no one else on the road but the two of them. There was no visible reason for him to feel danger. It came out of nowhere, emerging from the forest to their right. The huge truck smashed into the Corvette full speed, sending it tumbling across the road. Natasha’s head connected with the steering wheel and her world went black. Peter felt his head smack against the window three times before he was knocked out, his final thought full of confusion on what was happening. 

//////\\\\\\\\\\\

“What, what happened?” Peter’s words were slightly slurred as he reached a hand up to press against his temple gingerly. “Ouch.” He had a huge knot on his forehead as he tried to remember what he had done to get such a bump. He grunted as he forced himself to sit up, keeping his eyes pressed shut. It was cold for some reason and his limbs felt slightly numb. It was late-June, it shouldn’t be this cold. It shouldn’t be cold at all. It felt like he had been left in the tundra. 

“Peter?” Natasha’s voice sounded like it was coming through a tunnel. Peter dared to crack his eyes open, blinking to clear his vision a few times. He laid eyes on the blonde he looked up to, who was leaned up against the wall across from him. She had a nasty cut on her forehead, but it didn’t appear to be bleeding anymore. “Are you okay?” 

“I’m okay. Are you?” Peter rubbed his hands over his upper arms trying to get warm as he shivered. Wherever they were, it was freezing. He was only wearing a t-shirt and khaki shorts since the weather forecast for the day had been pushing a high of 96F. He had to be careful with extreme temperatures because of his spider DNA. When he was in the suit, it was fitted with a cooling and heating system, but in his everyday clothes, he always made sure to dress accordingly. 

“I am okay. I think we’re in a freezer truck.” Natasha answered as she glanced up and around, trying to gauge their surroundings. They were inside what appeared to be an insulated box. It was metal and Peter nodded in agreement. It made them both nervous that the cooling system seemed to have been turned on high. 

“Why are we here?” Peter wondered out loud as he tried to get to his feet, overcome by a wave of dizziness. “Woah.” He stumbled back into the wall before staggering over to sit next to Natasha. Apparently, those hits to the head had done a number on him. His body ached from the truck plowing into them. It felt like he’d gone a few rounds with a bad guy and then been tossed off a building. 

“Not sure yet.” Natasha shrugged out of her leather jacket and threw it over the boy’s exposed arms. She was in her standard dark jeans with a light moss green shirt underneath. Peter gave her a grateful look as he tucked it around his body too. Natasha was cold, but Peter’s enhanced state left him colder than she was. Whoever had put them in this truck had cranked the temperature down to a biting cold. 

“It’s cold.” Peter stated the obvious as he leaned unconsciously towards Natasha’s warmth. Natasha was cold but Peter got cold so fast that it was terrifying. Natasha glanced over where the door of the truck should be and swore when she saw it had been welded completely closed. There was no simple lock to pick to open the door. Tony’s gauntlets would tear it apart in seconds, but he had to find them first, and realize that they were missing and in trouble. There were no windows to gauge how much time had passed. She wasn’t feeling any sort of hunger or thirst, so her guess was it could not have been more than a few hours. 

“I know. Stark will realize something is up soon and come for us.” Natasha hated to sit and wait but with Peter injured and her not being strong enough to kick down the welded doors, they were stuck for the moment. She hated seeing Peter shiver so hard and it made her panic inwardly that he was already showing signs of hypothermia. Stark might be a pain in her ass, but he had the best technology to track them down once he figured out that they needed some assistance. 

“Think he’ll bring us hot chocolate?” Peter quipped with a half-hearted smile. The cold had leeched into every part of him. He always tried to put out a brave front, but the teenager inside of him was terrified, but he trusted Mr. Stark to rescue him. Mr. Stark always came for him. He just had to be brave for a little bit longer and then they would be out of this stupid truck. 

“Honestly, all we’ll need to do is step out into the sun and soak up the warmth.” Natasha joked back, thinking about how good the sunlight would feel. She might be Russian, but the bitter cold was not something she missed. New York got chilly, but it didn’t compare to the tundra state that Russia could hit. She had lived in a place where it got cold enough that if you took too deep of a breath in, you could die. 

“That’ll be nice. I want to be sunbathing.” Peter’s teeth chattered together, half obscuring what he said, but Natasha got the gist. She was worried about how cold he seemed to be. Since she wasn’t sure how long they had been unconscious, she didn’t know how fast Peter’s hypothermic state had already advanced.

“We’ll all go to the beach. Tony, Steve, Clint, we’ll even drag Bucky.” Natasha tried to keep the conversation light. Her head was pounding, and her ribcage ached from the car accident, but Peter was the priority. She knew that if he panicked, it would only make his metabolism work faster. 

“I love the beach.” Peter added after a moment as he tucked the jacket around him tighter. His body was starting to shiver harder, Natasha noted grimly. She tried to bring him in closer to her body, hiding her alarm at how cold his limbs felt against her. Spiders were not designed for cold temperatures, neither of the spiders inside this truck were, she thought wryly. She didn’t even realize she had drifted into her own thoughts until Peter pressed his face into her body. The tip of his nose felt like it was made of stone not skin. His cheeks were pale with a red flush that looked like a frost bite, but the haunting bluish tint his lips were taking on scared Natasha the most. 

“What’s your favorite warm thing to eat?” Natasha asked as a distraction for the both of them. She would really appreciate a thick heated blanket among other cozy things. She really wanted that cup of coffee. She also felt so guilty when she looked down at Peter. If she had just left Peter with Tony, he wouldn’t be in this freezing truck with her. 

“I love broccoli cheddar soup.” Peter answered as he shivered harder, his hands balling up into fists. He let his eyes close for a minute before he got his bearings together. God, it was so cold, and he could barely think. His limbs felt like they were full of fire and ice at the same time as the pins and needles set in. 

“Tony will come for us.” Natasha repeated her earlier statement. She had to have faith that Tony would realize something was amiss when no one heard from either of them. Peter was a teenager and always on his phone. Natasha might not be constantly on her phone, but she was not known for missing important text messages or ignoring when people were trying to get her to answer them. 

“I know. Just gotta stay as warm as possible until he gets here.” Peter was full-blown shaking, passing the realm of shivering. He had never been this cold in his life, and he was ready to get out of here. His body was screaming at him to get to a warmer location. He wanted to just get up and rip the door off the handles, but he didn’t seem to have the strength to get up and he was still dizzy. As Natasha watched over Peter, she tried to hold a conversation with him. It turned into mostly a one-sided conversation as the minutes dragged by. Peter’s lips got bluer and paler while his teeth chattered together, louder and louder. His answers slurred together until Natasha couldn’t really understand what he was saying. His eyes had started to dull and every blink he took lasted longer and longer. Natasha could feel her own teeth starting to chatter. It was extremely unfair that her body was processing the cold so much slower. “Just stay with me, Peter.” 

“Hnng.” Peter’s brow furrowed, trying to force out words but nothing happened. His brain wasn’t cooperating enough to send the words to his mouth. Peter’s smacked his lips together a few times. His lips were cracked from the cold and they had passed from being an icy blue to being as white as snow. His hands were contorted into tight fists, one clenching Natasha’s shirt. Peter’s gaze rolled around lazily. He didn’t seem to be aware of his surroundings anymore. He had stopped shivering a little while ago, a clear sign that his body was shutting down and failing him. Natasha let one tear roll down her cheek as she brought one shaky hand to pet his cheek. 

“Just a little bit longer Peter.” Natasha pleaded with him as she struggled to hold him closer to her, desperate to share some of her warmth with his frozen body. It felt like she was holding a block of ice against her, but Peter was colder than her. She cursed his enhanced body for processing temperatures faster than normal peoples did. Natasha knew she was hypothermic, but her condition was nothing like Peter’s. Peter’s core temp had fallen infinitely faster than hers. She was failing him because she wasn’t strong enough to break them out and there was no one coming to look for them. Natasha would give all of the heat left in her body to Peter to save him.

“M’r Sta’k?” Peter’s voice came out as a hopeful whisper as he locked his gaze onto Natasha with no recognition in his eyes. It was the first semi-coherent words he had spoken in a while. His hand fell away from Natasha’s shirt, no longer possessing the strength to hold it up anymore, hitting the ground with a smack. Natasha grimaced when Peter didn’t react. She really needed Tony to figure out yesterday that they were in trouble. Peter needed medical attention immediately if there was a chance that Peter would survive. 

“It’s Natasha, Peter.” Natasha ignored the quiver in her voice that wasn’t only from the cold. Peter’s brow furrowed slightly in confusion, unable to fully comprehend what Natasha had said. His legs had been locked up from the cold but had gone limp, sprawled on the floor. 

“Oh, hi, Tash. I, I’m c’ld.” Peter sighed in between each word like it had been a monumental effort to get out, as he turned his head in a little more towards Natasha, trying to press his head in closer to her, desperate for any warmth. He couldn’t move his arms or legs anymore and they were freezing but also numb. He couldn’t seem to remember why it was such a bad thing that he was so cold. He just wanted to go to sleep. He was so tired. Where were they again? Why was he so cold? His lungs were burning from the lack of oxygen, but he couldn’t seem to get more air. “T’rd.” 

“I know you are.” Natasha answered in the most soothing voice she could muster, choking on a sob as the realization slammed into her. The others weren’t going to get here in time. She was going to hold this child as he left them all behind. She was going to be the last thing that he saw before he didn’t see anything else. She was going to hold him until it was all over and he wasn’t cold anymore. The tears spilling over felt hot against her cold cheeks as she cradled Peter as close as she could. Her body was fully in the throes of hypothermia now as well and her limbs were going tingly. Her heart throbbed as she imagined a light as bright as Peter leaving the world so young and so innocent. 

“I’m s’ t’rd.” Peter mumbled again after a few minutes of slow blinking, his eyes were so glossy, Natasha wasn’t sure he was seeing something in this world or the next. His breaths were just shallow and desperate gasps. They were ineffective for providing any actual oxygen to his body. Natasha felt her heart breaking as she knew what she needed to do. Peter’s body was done fighting. It had put up a courageous battle but with his body working against him so hard, it was too much. 

“I’m sorry sweetheart.” Natasha’s hands shook, not just from the cold, as she brushed a stray curl clumsily out of his face. Peter’s lips turned slightly up at the corners at the nickname and the comforting touch. “Just, just, close your eyes. It’ll be over soon.” She was giving him permission to go, even as the words ripped at her already breaking heart. She knew that Peter was telling her he wasn’t just tired in a way that a nap was going to fix. Peter was trying to tell her that he was done. She had been trained to be a spy, a heartless assassin, to not feel emotions, but she couldn’t not feel anguish and sadness as she looked at Peter fondly. “It’s okay to rest now. It’s okay. You can go.” 

“Love you.” Peter murmured, relief flooding through his face at her words and her permission, as he let his eyes flutter shut. Little snowflakes had formed on his eyelashes. He looked every bit the young child that he still was. Natasha desperately tried to memorize the details of his face as she started to shiver harder, her own thoughts getting foggier. It wouldn’t be terribly much longer, and she would be joining Peter in the afterlife. Although, she knew she wouldn’t be heading the same place that Peter was going, not with all the red in her ledger, and especially since she was the reason Peter was dead. 

“I love you too, дорогая.” Natasha whispered as she watched Peter’s breath puff out before his lips sputtered out one final time and then, he just stopped. The last bit of resistance in his body left and he relaxed in her arms, growing impossibly heavier in her shaking arms. “No.” She breathed out as horror washed over her. She didn’t think it would be so fast. She wasn’t prepared for him to be gone so fast. She wasn’t ready. One last breath and he was just gone. He was gone to place that he wasn’t coming back from. “I’m so sorry. It’s okay.” She murmured as she let her head fall against his now. She fought to keep her own eyes open. The cold was taking a toll on her. Of all the ways she thought she would go, holding a dead teenager in the back of a refrigerated truck was not one of the ways she had ever imagined. She sighed as she squeezed Peter closer to her, whispering stories in his ear so that he didn’t feel alone. She logically knew that he didn’t feel anything anymore, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop. She had no idea how much time had passed when she could hear the sound of a repulsor firing at the door, then sparks started to spray inside the truck as Tony cut the door open. 

“Oh God!” Tony exclaimed as he ripped the door out of the way and burst through, trying to tear Peter from Natasha’s grasp. In Natasha’s half-aware state, she tried to cling to him tighter, but she was too uncoordinated to resist. Tony gathered the limp boy in his arms, not aware, yet, that it was too late. “Peter?” Tony shuddered at how cold Peter was. Clint climbed through the hole next and scooped Natasha into his arms. He knew it was bad when she didn’t even resist being carried. She slid her hands inside the top of his shirt, desperate for any warmth. 

“Jesus, you’re freezing, Nat!” He exclaimed, flinching away from her icy fingers, before he pressed her face against his warm chest as he headed out the hole. The second they stepped out; she turned her face to embrace the sunlight's rays. Bucky hurried over with a huge, warm blanket and between the two of them, they wrapped Natasha up like a burrito. 

“Peter!” Tony howled as he laid the boy down and felt for a pulse as he rubbed his chest. “No!” He screamed from his soul when he realized. Rhodey and Sam had been rushing forward with more warm blankets. They stopped dead in their tracks when they realized. “Pete, please!” He pleaded as he put his hands on each side of Peter’s lax face, using his thumbs to try to force some warmth back into his cheeks. He was so cold. "Peter. It's time to wake up!" Tears were welling up in the billionaire’s eyes as he felt the ground fall out from underneath him. He tapped Peter's cheeks, rubbing a fist against his chest when he didn't get a response before he let out a soul shattering wail. They had figured it out too late that Peter and Natasha were in trouble. It had taken them too long to find them. They were too late. Peter was gone and nothing would be right in the world ever again. He whimpered as he pulled Peter’s body, his corpse, into his lap and started to sob. He didn’t want to wake up in a world without Peter, but Peter was gone, and he was still here. The world would never be the same place again. 


End file.
